Military attacks further isolate Israel

Israel’s regional position has become more isolated and insecure in the years that it’s been waging a “low grade war” with Hamas, says Janine Zacharia in Slate. The country needs to develop a more “diplomatic, long-term strategic policy” for countering threats as the region becomes less tolerant of Israeli aggression, she says.

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I agree with parts of the article although I don’t agree that Israel has the right to attack a conquered and occupied 1.7 million people with such weapons in a crowded space in which they are imprisoned. If there is to be peace then Israel, and the US need to acknowledge the democratically elected party of Hamas, lift the blockade/embargo and allow free movement and economic trade for the Palestinians.

Please see two articles that have been written on the blogspace at the TU:

Readers of mainstream media publications like the TU and Slate may just not be aware that Israel did not retaliate until Hamas had fired a few hundred rockets into Israel. There is no Israeli “aggression” here, nor has it been “waging a low-grade war with Hamas”. Hamas, who has called for Israel’s destruction and has repudiated any “two-state” solution, is to anyone looking at the issue with any objectivity the aggressor waging what is anything but a “low-grade” war. And how is Hamas able to do this? Because Israel left Gaza on its own without asking for or getting anything in return – a clear example of the fact that the Palestinians do not want their own state next to Israel but all of Israel as well.

Thank you, paco33. I was beginning to believe NOone around here ever heard the TRUTH of these attacks.

Hamas, who the US calls a terrorist organization, STARTED this, with over 700 missles fired into Israeli territory, prior to ANY retaliatory strike by Israel!!

Now, for a history lesson. Jordan was SUPPOSED to be the Palestenian state set up when Israel became a nation in 1947. This deal was brokered to keep peace in the region at the time. The Palestenians HAVE a state, but as paco33 so rightly said, they want nothing less than the total destruction of Israel as a nation.

Of course Cathy, and I have to wonder what your reaction would be if Israeli soldiers informed you that your home was being taken to make room for Jewish settlers. Would you be thinking to yourself..”oh just take it, after all the bible says that the Jews should live here regardless of the fact that Palestinian families had been there for several centuries”. Then be herded into tiny fenced off fractions of the country and treated to being cut off from medical and food supplies every time the Palestinians do something that their Israeli overlords dislike. All this from a people who use the Holocaust to justify Israeli aggression. Why should the Palestinians be relocated from their ancestral homes for a place in Jordan to make room for immigrants? Would you relocate to another country if you were in the same situation?

Right on Jeffrey. Good bring it back home example plus the omission that in the FY 2013 budget US taxpayers are supposed to pay $3.1 Billion dollars in military aid to Israel plus the interest on that money and in violation of two laws about military aid:

There are two primary laws that place conditions and restrictions
on how foreign governments can use U.S. foreign assistance: the Foreign Assistance Act and the Arms Export Control Act.
Israel is violating both of these laws in their treatment of the Palestinians.

@paco33 and Cathy,
You really have to go online and look at foreign news sources to get a good idea of what’s actually going on in the part of the world today. Most of our allies, other than Israel, are opposed to U.S. and Israeli policies in regards to the Palestinians. Why do you think that is?
@Cathy,
Your last paragraph is a bunch of nonsense. It’s just a bunch of pro-Israeli propaganda. Here is a map of the original U.N. partition plan http://mideastweb.org/un_palestine_partition_map_1947.htm. The Israeli’s accepted it, but the Palestinians rejected it since there were almost no Jews in the Palestinian partition and there were lots of Palestinians in the Jewish partition, in some areas a substantial majority. This has been the history of this area – the Palestinians being treated unfairly through force, the Palestinians just taking it for awhile, something new even more unfair happening, the Palestinians reacting violently, more force being used, etc, etc. The Jordanians and Palestinians are different ethnic groups and traditionally have occupied separate areas, so it was not the original plan for Palestine to become part of Jordan. I don’t want to make this sound like I thing the Palestinians are innocent victims, they’re anything but that, the Palestinian leadership uses the turmoil to stay in power, but the Israeli/US party-line on this is just propaganda.